Winter has got to be my favorite season. I’d rather be cold than hot. I mean you can always bundle up and add more layers to keep warm, but you can only take off a certain amount of clothes before you get arrested. And with all this snow and cold fronts hitting America in the past couple of weeks, what’s one to do while stuck inside than lay on the couch, drink some hot chocolate (with maybe a touch of Bailey’s) and watch these top 5 horror movies that take place in the dead of winter.

5.

Dead Snow

Snow? Check. Ski vacation? Check. Evil Nazi zombies? Double check! Group of friends shack up in a cabin on a snowy mountain and are soon interrupted by an army of Nazi zombies that have laid frozen since World War 2 underneath the blanket of snow. Now this ensemble of people need to put aside their differences and team to defend their cabin by Chain sawing their way through this Nazi zombie horde. Best. Vacation. Ever.

4.

Frozen

No, not the Disney movie. Adam Green’s Frozen. From the director of the Hatchet series, Frozen takes an innocent thing like being stuck on a ski lift and takes it to a new height of horror. Three friends go on a ski trip (seeing a trend? Don’t go skiing!) and get stuck in the middle of a ski lift due to some technical operator error. Whats worse is they are the last one and the ski resort closes for the weekend and becomes completely desolate. Wind chills are higher in the air and the group realizes they will not last the weekend stuck on the chair lift. Actors you’ll recognize from other horror projects include Kevin Zegers (Dawn of the Dead), Emma Bell (Walking Dead), and Shawn Asmore (The Ruins). What these skiers do to survive will absolutely chill you to the bone. See what I did there. Plenty more to come…

3.

30 Days of Night

What’s than living in a small town in Alaska that is completely cut off due to the heavy snow? How about living there during a full month of darkness? Can’t get any worse than that, right? It can if that town is attacked by (actual scary not sparkling) Vampires whose worst enemy is the sun. This is the predicament Sheriff Eben Oleson (Josh Hartnett) finds himself as he teams up with his estranged wife and a handful of survivors to hide and defend themselves as a group of bloodthirsty vampires. This will restore your faith in vampires as they are not here to fall in love with a bland high school girl who breathes through her mouth. But that’s a different kind of horror film…

2.

The Shining

Being inside in a giant empty hotel and staying warm during a cold winter sounds nice, right? But what if you were stuck inside that hotel for months? And you keep trying to write your novel but you have the worst case of writers block ever! And to top that off, your wife keeps interrupting you and all you want to do I bash her brains in!!! OK now I see why Jack Nicholson’s Jack Torrance went a little crazy on Wendy Torrance played by Shelly Duvall. But I mean who wouldn’t when the hotel is putting these bad thoughts in your head. In one of my favorite Stanley Kubrick films (that list coming soon), and written by my favorite author of all time, Stephen King, a family staying buy themselves soon succumbs to cabin fever and paranoia as Wendy must now save her son and herself from her ever increasing crazy husband. The ending will leave you frozen in terror! (Told you there’d be more)

1.

The Thing

Now take the premise of The Shining, but instead of snow Colorado, its Antarctica. And instead of a large empty hotel, it’s a small research outpost. Now take that family of three and replace it with a crew of 12 burly men. Doesn’t sound bad yet. Add a parasitic alien that can take the shape of any of those men. Welcome to Paranoia City. Population- One human..or alien.. I don’t know. John Carpenter delivers an exciting remake of the classic in what I believe is the superior version starring Kurt Russel as the bearded R.J. MacReady trying to figure out who is human and who has been assimilated into an alien. I’ve see this movie so many times and still can’t faithfully point out when certain characters become aliens or the ending but what I can tell you is this movie will not disappoint! Not the prequel…that’s another list.